


My Shot

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were plenty of places in Manhattan where the cop and the ADA spent time outside of work.  Her home had been one of them only on a handful of occasions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Shot

“Sergeant!”

“Oh my god, Counselor, what are you doing in my neighborhood?” Liv asked as she walked out of the grocery store. She was carrying three canvas bags and Rafael took two of them from her.

“I was looking for you.” He said.

“Well here I am. Nice outfit.”

“What's wrong with my outfit?” Rafael looked down at his clothes, dark rinse jeans and a light blue Ralph Lauren button up. He didn’t even tuck his shirt in.

“You're wearing jeans.” Liv said. “You own jeans.”

“Try to hold back your shock but I do own a pair or two.”

“They look good on you. I hope this visit isn't work related, it is Saturday.”

“Definitely not.” Rafael shook his head. “I have a surprise for you and I didn’t want to wait until Monday.”

“A surprise?”

“Stop being such a skeptical cop…this is a good thing.”

“Alright, let's walk and talk.”

Liv was three blocks from her apartment. They called them condos now but that was mostly for aesthetics. Tribeca had changed a lot since she grew up on the streets of Manhattan. It used to be the neighborhood for gritty loft parties, artsy bars, and questionable dates. 

Now it was full of celebrities, hipsters, and young families who could still afford the skyrocketing rents. Saturday afternoon and the area was bustling. The weather was supposed to be turning cold but hadn’t really. Even a week after Halloween people were walking around in tee shirts.

“How’s your weekend so far?” she asked when they stopped at a red light.

“I was considering going into the office today but talked myself out of it.” Rafael replied.

“I'm so glad to hear that. You work too much.”

“We’re not going to revisit the pot and kettle conversation, are we?”

“Yes, I work a lot.” Liv smiled. “But sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses. Or at least stop and buy the groceries.”

“Is Noah at home?”

“Trevor took him to the park for kites and pictures. You know Trevor Langan, right?”

“You know that I know Trevor Langan.” Rafael said.

“How long were you two dating again?” Liv crossed the street when the walk sign came on.

“You and I haven’t really talked about that.”

“Hence my asking the question.”

“We will someday.” He said.

“Just give me a number, Counselor, I want to know what I'm working with here.”

“A year and a half…give or take.” Rafael replied.

“Give or take what?” Liv glanced at him.

“Give or take not really wanting to talk about it.”

“I bet you two were cute. I bet you argued about being arrogant, loving assholes.”

“You think I'm an asshole?” he asked.

“You think you're an asshole, Barba. I think you're an arrogant, loving asshole. There's a difference.”

“Enlighten me.”

“I don’t like being around assholes.” Liv shook her head. “I let arrogant, loving assholes carry my groceries and walk me home.”

Rafael smirked as they walked onto her block. There were a lot of people around, a kid whizzed by on a scooter with an unleashed mutt in tow. It was a nice neighborhood. Not as nice as his but more accessible. Surely people walked around on the Upper West Side. 

There was plenty to see and most wanted to be seen. But it was filled with high rise condos and secured entrances. Sometimes it could be seen as a high rent prison. Liv’s neighborhood was more open. People who weren't paid to bow and hail you cabs still said hello in the mornings and evenings. And guys coming out of your building held the door open for you and badly flirted even though you were with a male friend.

“I don’t like him.” Rafael walked behind her on the stairwell. Liv was on the second floor; she always walked the stairs.

“Bryce is a perfectly nice guy.”

“Bryce? His name is Bryce?”

“Don’t make fun, Barba.” Liv dug her house keys out of the pocket of her jeans.

“Of a blond guy living in Tribeca named Bryce. But there's a smorgasbord there for me to work with.”

“You're mean.” She laughed.

“I like to think of it as a cross between formidable and vexatious.” Rafael said.

“Semantics.”

They walked into the apartment and straight back into the kitchen. Rafael hadn’t been there in a while, there was no reason to be really. He could probably think of a few but never really did. There were plenty of places in Manhattan where the cop and the ADA spent time outside of work. Her home had been one of them only on a handful of occasions. They hadn’t crossed that line yet, once they did it would be difficult to go back.

“So you have a surprise for me?” Liv asked. She put the canvas bags on her counter and opened some of the cabinets.

“I do.” he pulled the envelope from his back pocket and handed it to her. “Here you go.”

“Oh wow Counselor, an envelope. I'm impressed.”

“Open it.”

Liv smiled, opening it and pulling out two tickets. She looked at them for a minute and then her facial expression changed. She couldn’t actually believe what she was holding.

“Are these real?” she asked.

“They are 100% real.” Rafael replied.

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” she hit his shoulder.

“Ow.”

“These are tickets to _Hamilton_. How did you do this? I want to see this show so badly. Oh my god, no one is getting into this show right now.”

“Well, I don’t want to brag but I know a guy.”

“You know a guy?” Liv looked at him as she put the tickets safely back into the envelope. “Well who do you know Barba, Lin-Manuel Miranda?”

“Sort of.” He nodded.

“Are you kidding me? Barba, tell me that you're kidding. You know Lin-Manuel Miranda?”

He didn’t exactly know the playwright. Their mothers were acquaintances though Rafael still didn’t quite know how. It wasn’t his business but Lucia had mentioned Mrs. Miranda on more than one occasion. She was quite proud of _In the Heights_ and had recently started reading Chernow’s biography so she would know what all the _Hamilton_ hype was about. Lucia surprised her son with the tickets…he was just going to spend too much money to get a pair for he and Olivia. She knew how much he loved Broadway shows; she also knew that everyone in the world was coming to New York to see it. Even the President had been in the audience one night.

“Our mothers know each other and she got me the tickets. I told her that you were excited about seeing it. The whole world is excited about seeing it.”

“Oh wow, who am I going to take with me?” Liv asked, opening the fridge and putting in more groceries. “I know so many people who would sell their souls to go, even sit in the nosebleed seats. Do you know they do standing room? People are standing for three hours to have this experience, Barba.”

“Oh, well…” Rafael sighed.

“Just kidding, Counselor.” She laughed. “I had you going there for a minute. You should see your face, you look like you just found out Santa isn't real.”

“That’s a traumatic thing, Olivia. So do you want to go together? We could make a real night of it; have dinner and then see the show.”

“You mean like a date?”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“Seriously?” Olivia froze as she pulled the macaroni from her shopping bag.

“Is that so horrible?”

“No, of course it’s not horrible. I just…it’s not horrible, Rafael. It’s really not. I'm looking forward to it.”

“No pressure.” Rafael shook his head. “I mean that.”

“Of course.”

She finished putting away the rest of her groceries as Rafael stood in the middle of her kitchen floor. Liv wasn’t entirely sure what to say. There had been a few times when she wanted to ask him to do something but didn’t want it to seem like she was asking him out on a date. They worked closely, somehow they always ended up out eating or drinking. They had conversations that weren't always about the law. 

Rafael knew things about her and she knew things about him. Some people thought they were already dating, or at least fucking like bunnies, but that wasn’t the case. Liv thought about it. She’d had a couple of inappropriate thoughts about the ADA. More often than not she was thinking about them spending time together like couples do…watching movies, walking through a bookstore, taking a road trip where they bickered over what to play on the radio the entire way.

“I should probably go.” Rafael cleared his throat and slipped his hands in his pocket.

“Could you stick around for a while? We can have some lunch and hang out. Noah and Trevor won't be back for a couple of hours and I was just going to make some food and relax on the couch with a movie. If you don’t have anything going on, you could stay with me.”

“What movie would we watch?” he asked

“You can pick the movie and I’ll handle lunch. The DVDs are under the cabinet where I keep the TV.”

“I'm not watching anything with Julia Roberts.” Rafael said as he left the kitchen and went into the living room.

“So noted. I've got a much bigger collection than you think.” Liv went into the fridge and grabbed the chicken she’d been marinating in Italian spices for almost two days. This would be a perfect lunch. “Most of my nights off work consist of a DVD or re-watching _Grey’s Anatomy_ on Netflix. I don’t have to pay as much attention as I would with books. My brain is usually trying to come down from bad days.”

Rafael nodded, knowing that opening that cabinet was going to be insight into Olivia’s world that he never had before. You could tell a lot about a person by what they watched on television. On his last real day off, Rafael pulled out his _I, Claudius_ boxed set, made some steak quesadillas, got the good beer, and invited Trevor over for a major nerd fest. It was the most awesome and relaxing thing that either one of them had done in the longest time. They loved arguing over the history, picking other British actors who might have been better in the roles, and comparing the _Masterpiece Theatre_ brilliance to that of Robert Graves’ amazing book. _I, Claudius_ wasn’t just about watching a mini-series, as they were called back then, it was an experience.

“Oh wow!”

“What?” Liv looked over at him from the kitchen. She was unwrapping the chicken to put in a wok and cutting up a green pepper.

“You have the complete _Bob Newhart_ Show.” Rafael held up the boxed set and smiled.

“I'm a big fan.”

“So am I. I used to watch it on Nick at Nite all the time when I was a kid. I miss them playing great shows like Patty Duke. I may be showing my age here but those shows were great ways to end all the stressful days of school and the crap at home. My mom would give me one hour to be on my own with Nick at Nite.”

“The television watched me more than my mother did.” Liv said.

“Let's watch Bob Newhart together.” He said.

“I think that might be fun. I'm going to make some chicken stir fry with brown rice.”

“Stir fry sounds perfect.” Rafael smiled.

That wasn’t the only thing that sounded perfect. What a nice afternoon it would be laughing with Liv and watching one of his favorite shows. They were going on a date soon, going to make it official and formal, but relaxed was what they did best. They had been doing it for a while and it was good for both of them. 

Taking the next step seemed destined, even though Rafael intended to take it slow. Not too slow…it felt like he'd been waiting forever to be with Liv. So many things in their lives made it not the right time to pursue matters of the heart. Maybe there would never be a right time. Now was just the time.

***


End file.
